The Identity Thief
by Radiant Shooketh
Summary: Basically an AU and a "what if?" scenario of my existing series: Monarchs of the Nightmare Realm. The deal is that Scarlet loses her memories as a result of heading off into the Howling Cliffs and surviving there for many years after the Knight completed the Ritual, and she somehow finds her way in the edges of Deepnest. Oh, boy.


Scarlet was lost...

All she could remember was that someone that she could not quite recall had instructed her to remain on a bench of some town long forgotten from her memory now and to wait there until that individual returned. She had waited, and waited, and waited… But whoever that individual was, they never came back for her. At that very young age, she felt helpless and hurt that whom she assumed was her caretaker had abandoned her. Using her new developed wings at the time, she flew off west of the town and into a desolate wasteland with nothing there but howling winds and cliffs and corpses of large bugs, and staying there for a few years.

Scarlet had done a bit of exploring and realized that she could leave the wastelands. Finding a hidden exit behind a breakable wall, she left the wastelands and went on a grand adventure and got lost as a result of not knowing where she was going. From the wastelands, Scarlet went venturing deep into areas of treacherous acidic lakes and green paths everywhere, a canyon filled with strange looking creatures that she has never seen before, and a large garden that she may have discovered belonged to someone very important.

According to some lore tablets that were scattered throughout these lands, Scarlet found out that she was in the kingdom of Hallownest, a kingdom filled with a variety of species of bugs. The kingdom was suffering from an Infection and a Vessel was made to contain it, but it failed. Now, these lands were crawling with mindless husks. Venturing deep into the gardens, she met someone inside of what appeared to be a small shrine of some sort resembling a cocoon. Inside, she found a very large white tree that turned out to be an individual. Her white aura was powerful, making the small creature that Scarlet was squint her red eyes at the mere sight of them.

The White Lady's eyes opened, and she blinked. "Oh! One arrives. Far it walks to find me. Did it seek my aid? Or did the path carry it by chance to so pertinent a place?" She blinked and then very subtly flinched. "No, you are not them. The discarded Vessel who had come to visit me many years ago. But something about your aura is quite familiar, child. Forgive me, I cannot see you, but then time has clouded my eyes and I cannot see much_._"

The White Lady's eyes squinted at Scarlet.

"Ah, the Higher Being of Nightmares. Success then for the scarlet heart and irony, to use my spawn to grow its own," with a tone that held a bit of resentment. But the White Lady sighed. She could not get angry at this child. They were born with invisible chains, bound to an inescapable fate as soon as it was born.

Scarlet bowed her head respectfully. She somehow knew that she was talking with a Higher Being, but she wasn't exactly sure who. "Who are you? I'm sorry, but my memory has been rather poor these past few years."

"You seek my aid, then? A wise choice, my child. I am sure to know a vast amount about my kingdom. Any queen should know her kingdom inside and out." At this, Scarlet almost gawked. So, this was the queen of Hallownest.

"...perhaps. I do not know who I am, nor what I am doing in this kingdom. I was left under the care of someone years ago, but they never came back for me. I was hoping you could tell me a bit about myself, since you appear to know who I am…?"

"Higher Being of Nightmares, you are a Vessel of the Nightmare Heart, the ruler of your realm."

"My realm?"

"The Nightmare Realm. As for your caretaker, they were my spawn, and it seemed to have aided your predecessor in completing the Ritual."

"Ritual?"

"To prolong the Nightmare Heart."

"... Do you know where my caretaker is now?" Scarlet asked.

"They have fulfilled their purpose. After the Pure Vessel had failed in containing the Infection, your caretaker returned to these lands to fulfil their destiny. They have taken the place of their sibling and sealed the Infection within them… Or at least, I thought they had. I can no longer feel their essence. They seemed to have stopped the plague entirely."

"So they are…"

"Yes, child…" The White Lady was silent for a bit to mourn the death of her child, and then sighed. "I'm sorry, you must have had a strong relationship with your caretaker, am I not correct?"

Scarlet nodded. "Can you tell me more about… my predecessor?"

"While I am not entirely sure of how the fundamentals of your kind operate, your father had my spawn participate in a Ritual to sustain the Heart. Your kind is made of pure flames, so the Ritual made it so that the flames of your father were sacrificed to the Heart and that aided your growth. With your predecessor gone, you are the next spawn of the Heart and it will be your duty to sustain it. I believe your kind travels in groups… Child, where is your troupe?"

"I… I am not sure," Scarlet admitted.

"Those who venture outside Hallownest lose their precious memories. But since you have made your way back into this kingdom, they may start coming back to you."

And that's exactly what had happened. As Scarlet exited the small shrine of the queen and continued on past the Queen's Gardens, small bits of memories flashed within her mind. She vaguely remembered a towering figure, one who looked exactly like her, with tall horns the colour like the blackest of night, and those deep scarlet eyes. The moment she was born, she recalled faintly what they had said to her the moment they laid eyes on her:

_"__My little Scarlet flame… One day, you shall be a wonderful troupe leader. Once I am gone, you shall lead this troupe to other distant lands and conduct a magnificent Ritual, fulfilling your destiny… Let your flame burn bright, my little Scarlet…"_

_My name is Scarlet?_ she wondered.

And then she remembered someone else. They were a rather small being, with white horns and wielding a small nail by their side. She remembered accompanying them as they collected what appeared to be flames from these strange beings. They wore these white masks similar to her own, and her father's. She felt like they may be part of the troupe that her dad had mentioned, but she could not recall exactly. This caretaker of hers had gestured for her to stay at the bench, and she had assumed that they would return. Curled up into her wings, she waited for them. But they never came back and based on what the queen had told her, it was probably to keep her safe from whatever they were doing. Fighting someone, maybe. The Vessel meant to contain the Infection, perhaps.

Scarlet felt a pang of sadness, and loneliness hit her hard. She had no father, and no one else to take care of her. And through her sadness, she wondered about the dead kingdom and into lands unknown. From the Queen's Gardens, she ventured into a hole that descended somewhere else… Into a dreaded place that no one in their right mind would go to. It was a very dark place that required Scarlet to light up a flame within her hand to guide her through all this darkness. She encountered many hostile and volatile enemies that resemble spiders. She had to dodge and burn her way through this twisty maze of death and webs.

Scarlet was lost within this maze of darkness and infected spiders.

"Where am I going?" She asked herself in frustration.

Scarlet continued on the twists and turns of Deepnest, avoiding and slaying other enemies. They exploded, leaking a disgusting orange fluid from their orifices and dead bodies. The smell was quite putrid and Scarlet resisted the urge to throw up. How did she end up in this place, anyway? Down she went, further and further. She avoided some garpedes and turned towards a corner. She miraculously found a hot spring and decided to rest in it for a bit. From there, she descended further into the path.

And then she found something that made the flame within her burn, but she froze in her spot. In front of her was a tall being staring back at her with scarlet eyes. Said individual looked exactly like her, just taller and more mature.

"No, it can't be… Dad?" She called out to them, her voice on the verge of breaking. She watched as they teleported from her view and ended up on the other side of the room. They continued to stare back at her before fleeing in the opposite direction. "Hey wait, don't go! Where are you going?"

Scarlet chased after the individual who looked like her dad. Impossible, she thought. Her father was dead, burned up from the Ritual. What happened? Why was he here, of all places? This can't be right. The Ritual meant that the living flame within him was burnt out and sacrificed to the Heart. How could he be here, running away from her? She gave chase, running through the dark halls of the cavern. On her way, she saw a trail of dead bodies. That sight made her shiver, and what made it even worse was that she could still feel the lingering feeling of fear that they had left behind. Something was terribly wrong…

Scarlet stopped to catch her breath and when she looked in front of her, the being that resembled her father had stopped running to stare back at her. As soon as she made eye contact with them, it took running again.

"Wait stop, don't go! Please!" And gave chase to it again. As she made her way deeper into the caverns, the trail of corpses increased exponentially. She had a bad feeling that this thing claiming to be her father was leading her somewhere. But in that fleeting moment, Scarlet was too occupied to even consider that this thing may not even be her father. It wore his face and with Scarlet being starved of a parent for love and concern, she just so badly wanted to cuddle into his cloak and cry. Not even stopping for a moment, she continued to chase after them until it stopped at a small subsection of the cave.

When Scarlet arrived there, she instantly knew she had made a terrible choice following it. There were corpses strung above her, and of different bugs. Some of them were the beasts she saw from earlier. Others kind of looked like her caretaker's kind, which concerned her greatly. She knew her caretaker was powerful and yet to see some of its kind dead in this dreary place… At the same time however, her dad was standing right there. He had stopped running, finally. She exhaled, trying to quell the fear that was stirring inside of her.

"Dad, why are you here? Why were you running from me?" Scarlet asked him. No, enough of the stupid questions. He was right here. There was no need to question him. She chuckled happily. "I thought you were dead for a long time and yet to see you here, alive… This makes me very happy."

He didn't answer her.

"Dad, are you okay…?" Her question soon died down and was replaced with a frightened scream. She was not prepared at all for what her eyes saw right in front of them, and it's a sight she'll never forget.

Right in front of her eyes, Troupe Master Grimm's head twisted itself at a 90 degree angle, and then soon stretched beyond that. That was not her dad, she realized. It was the body of another creature entirely. A tall, black spider wearing her father's appearance, it sprouted its long spindly legs and grew itself two red wings on its back. On its belly, an orange sac of infection. In horror, she realized it was mimicking her father's wings. It mimicked everything about her father.

The creature leaped into the air and started to fly, the creature still keeping Grimm's head in front of it, as if taunting her.

"No, please…"

It flew towards her and she dove out of the way. It spewed orange balls of infection and she dodged them easily.

"Please, stop it."

The onslaught of orange balls continued and it dove towards her again, very persistently. Scarlet felt a searing pain inside of her, the flames within about to burst forth. The creature continued until she could no longer take the torture. This was beyond cruel. She released an ear shattering, blood curdling screech and the entire room exploded with heat. The flames around Scarlet sweltering the room and melting the beast until it was nothing but Grimm's fake head. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing hysterically. Scarlet curled herself into a ball, wrapping her wings around herself and crying onto her legs.

She just wanted to see her caretaker again, and her beloved father. She wanted to gather them up and just collapse into their arms and never let go. As the Higher Being of Nightmares, this creature was the scariest thing she has ever encountered in her short life. She was the ruler of the Nightmare Realm, the place that feeds off of people's fears.

And yet… Why was she the one that was scared?


End file.
